Cycling in the Terai

From Hetauda, Kathmandu’s gateway to the Terai, it’s a half-day’s ride west along the busy Mahendra Highway to Chitwan National Park, where there are many flat village trails to explore by bike. Moving on to Pokhara requires travelling via Narayanghat and the Prithvi (Kathmandu–Pokhara) Highway – worryingly busy in the mornings, but nonetheless beautiful, especially between Mugling and Pokhara. Another option is just to put your bike on a bus. Heading east out of Hetauda, the Mahendra Highway is sometimes interestingly rural, sometimes rather urbanized, and always flat. There’s a good network of lovely rural tracks around Janakpur.